COLLOCATION OF SYSTEMS AT SPACE GEODETIC SITES-BEST PRACTICES TO ENSURE CORRECT SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION OF COMBINED SOLUTIONS

JOHN M. BOSWORTH

ASSOCIATE CHIEF
LABORATORY FOR TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS
NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

The number of space geodesy sites with collocated high precision measurement systems has grown over the last decade throughout the world. Scientific analysts have increasingly attempted to use the data from these collocated systems in combined solutions. This form of analysis assumes that high accuracy a-priori knowledge of the spatial relationship between reference points of the various systems exists and is openly available. This assumption has not always been correct and analysts have regularly found inadequate or low precision site tie information, which has resulted in degrading their solutions. These deficiencies have motivated increased emphasis on communicating to the community the best practices that we and other space geodesy organizations have developed in three decades of site survey work. This oral presentation supported by the two associated poster presentations from NASA will review the extent of collocation of systems at NASA and global sites. It will provide our view of the current status of surveys and survey documentation at these sites. It will discuss the work of the International Space Geodetic Network (ISGN) and explain the ISGN site criteria standards. Finally, it will outline the NASA methodology for precision surveys between space geodetic systems and the site control monuments.